The Pit Stall

Another four races are in the books and it’s time for a little review and update on my previous predictions.  Some things played out as expected, and of course others didn’t.  The top 12 after Richmond could very well be the same as the top 12 currently, but I’m not ruling out a couple drivers from making a jump just yet.

Count Them In

I lumped Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch all into the ’locked in’ group and I don’t think that has changed.  They occupy 4 of the top 5 spots and each have a 60+ point per race cushion.  Jimmie has had an uncharacteristic bad spell, and has seemed to find trouble wherever trouble could be found.  Can any of it be attributed to being a new parent, and a possible lack of focus for the time being?  I’m sure the rest of the Chase competitors hope so.  While we’re at it, we might as well add Jeff Burton to the locked in category.  He’s been money since my last post and went in the complete opposite direction I was expecting. 

Some Numbers

Note: Points cutoff is relative to the 12th position.  Recent Avg is over the past 5 races.  Tracks Avg is the Average finish (not including 2010) at the remaining 4 tracks (all races).

Driver	Points Cutoff	Recent Avg	Tracks Avg
Denny Hamlin	+231	113.6	12.53
Kyle Busch	+225	107.6	12.43
Tony Stewart	+224	141.4	10.55
Carl Edwards	+180	160.2	13.4
Matt Kenseth	+165	120.4	13.05
Greg Biffle	+102	123.4	12.73
Mark Martin	0	118.8	16.35
Clint Bowyer	-10	125.4	16.38
Ryan Newman	-83	110.6	17.98
Dale Earnhardt Jr	-121	100.6	11.65
Kasey Kahne	-133	132.4	18.23
David Reutimann	-166	121.0	22.28

Tony Stewart

Tony is in a great spot and has had a solid run of good finishes (4 straight top 10s).  He also has the best stats of the remaining drivers at the next four tracks.  Lock him in! 

Denny Hamlin

Denny has cooled of late after winning 5 of 10 races between March and June.  His best finish in the past few races was at a traditionally weak track for him in Chicago.  He still has a pretty large cushion and the remaining tracks he’s been decent at, with a favourite of his to end the regular season (Richmond).  It’ll be some sort of travesty for him not to make it at this point.

Kyle Busch

The younger Busch brother has put up 2 months of ‘meh’.  Since the first Michigan race, which saw an end to an 8 race streak of top 10′s, he’s only managed 2 finishes of 10th or better, and only led during 2 of those races.  Very uncharacteristic of a guy that seemed to always be up near the front, gunning for it.  Maybe they’ve been pacing themselves and trying some things out prior to the Chase, since they were in a pretty comfortable spot.  Either way, Kyle is pretty safely in the top 12.

Matt Kenseth

It’s been typical Matt Kenseth lately, with a heap of consistent finishes.  I’m sure he’d like to be consistently finishing somewhere in the 5-10 range instead of 12-18, but that will still get him into the Chase.  The Roush Fords have stepped up their game of late, and that’s a good sign heading into the playoff.

Jeff Burton

Jeff Burton has torn it up since I last posted, at tracks that he’s not usually that strong at.  He’s been second to only Carl Edwards over the past 5 races.  As previously mentioned, he’s now included in the locked in group.

Greg Biffle/Carl Edwards

Greg Biffle has been up and down the past 5 races, but he does have that all important 1st with for Roush Fenway this season.  He’s still in danger of falling out, but the next 4 tracks are ones he does well at.  If Biffle can nail down a typical solid Roush performance at Michigan, it would go a long way to putting him in the post-season.  Carl Edwards has been on a tear.  His last 5 races have all been top 7 finishes, and he’s averaged nearly 15 points per race better than anyone in the field over that span.  He’ll lock himself in with what I expect will be another top 5 this weekend at Brooklyn.

Dale Earnhardt Jr

I said Dale Earnhardt Jr would have to greatly improve his performance on the Indy to Watkins Glen stretch to be a factor in the Championship standings. He didn’t.  He finished each of the past 4 races between 23rd-27th.  I’m still not writing him off, as he has the second best stats of any driver over the next 4 tracks.  He just has a big hill to climb.

Outside Looking In

Burton going on a tear pretty much means there’s only really 1 or 2 spots still up for grabs, depending on how you look at things.  Earnhardt Jr. sits on the outside looking in and as expected Mark Martin has worked his way into the top 12.  Bowyer is not far behind, and I don’t think I can completely write him off with how well the Childress teams are running.  Kasey Kahne has continued to run well (6th best over last 5 races), but he may have been too far back to begin with.  It’ll take a monumental collapse by a number of drivers or a miraculous stretch by himself to make it.  Michigan, Bristol, Atlanta and Richmond haven’t exactly been kind to Kasey.  McMurray has moved himself up the charts with a big win at Indy and other solid finishes, but again, he’s struggled at the upcoming tracks.

So that leaves my expected Chase drivers currently looking like this:  Harvick, Gordon, Johnson, Busch x2, Hamlin, Kenseth, Stewart, Biffle, Edwards, Martin, Burton. (changes in bold)

Filed under: Pit Picks by Site Admin - Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
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Over the past few weeks, the ‘Chase for the Championship’ has been mentioned more and more on the NASCAR race broadcasts. With the regular season close to three quarters finished, it’s a good time to take a look at who the 12 contenders for the title may be. We’ll take a look at the current standings, recent performance and also driver history at the remaining 8 tracks.

Count Them In

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch are locked in. All 4 drivers currently have at least 300 points on 13th place, and barring a major catastrophe will be competing for the 2010 crown. I’m also going to eliminate everyone from Jamie McMurray on down as they’re all at least 200 points south of the 12th place cutoff, and have too many drivers to jump. That leaves us with 14 drivers vying for the remaining 8 spots.

Some Numbers

Note: Points cutoff is relative to the 12th position.  Recent Avg is over the past 5 races.  Tracks Avg is the Average finish (not including 2010) at the remaining 8 tracks (all races).  Wins is wins at the remaining 8 tracks (all races).  I may have punched in a number or two wrong, but they should be relatively accurate.

Driver	Points Cutoff	Recent Avg	Tracks Avg	Wins
Denny Hamlin	+230	133.6	12.95	6
Kyle Busch	+206	101.4	13.69	8
Matt Kenseth	+152	108.2	13.41	5
Jeff Burton	+149	132.4	18.25	2
Tony Stewart	+81	146.2	8.84	18
Greg Biffle	+64	117.2	15.19	2
Dale Earnhardt Jr	+7	136.8	16.36	7
Carl Edwards	0	113.6	13.56	9
Mark Martin	-39	99.2	13.86	14
Clint Bowyer	-49	115.6	15.56	1
Ryan Newman	-80	108.6	18.16	5
Kasey Kahne	-154	130.4	18.78	5
David Reutimann	-170	115.6	24.14	0
Joey Logano	-173	107.2	20.69	0

Tony Stewart

The first thing that stands out to me looking at this chart is Tony Stewart will definitely be a part of the Chase.  He always gets ‘hot’ in the summer months, and this year looks to be no exception.  He’s third, behind Harvick and Johnson for points over the past 5 races.  He also has by far the best average finish and most wins at the remaining regular season tracks. 

Denny Hamlin

Denny Hamlin looks to be in a solid enough position to hold down the 6th spot in the post season.  He has a large cushion, a solid average and wins at a number of the tracks left on the schedule.  His weakest race left is this coming weekend at Chicagoland Speedway and he still averages a top 20 finish there.

Kyle Busch

Kyle Busch has been ‘struggling’ of late, which has taken him out of the ‘absolutes’ group and forced us to take a look at where he stacks up against the rest of the cut off group.  He’s been out front, and leading laps, but hasn’t been getting the finishes.  He has average finishes of 12th or better at 4 of the remaining tracks though, including a 6.0 at Richmond.  I’d be surprised if he’s not locked in and going for ‘bonus’ points there.

Matt Kenseth

Despite the much discussed lack of speed in the Ford camp, Matt Kenseth has been his usual consistent self, racking up decent finishes and putting himself in a position to compete for a championship.  He’s behind only Stewart and Hamlin for average finish, with only 1 track being outside of a 15th average finish.  I’ll give him the nod as well.

Jeff Burton

Jeff Burton looks to have a solid cushion with close to 200 points on 13th and has run well of late.  That said, I’m not completely sold on his chances to make it in.  200 points over 8 races is 25 points per race.  That’s anywhere between 5 and 8 positions per race.  There’s some solid drivers just outside the cutoff that I could see pulling that off.   Burtons chances could be made or broken at The Glen, where he has easily the worst average finish of anyone we’re looking at any track.   Solid finishes at Chicago and Indy would go a long way towards giving him some breathing room at the road course.

Greg Biffle/Carl Edwards

Greg Biffle has been decent as of late (10th of all drivers over past 5) but he hasn’t been up front leading laps, and those bonus points missed out on could come back to haunt him come Richmond.  I think unless Roush gets this FR9 engine figured out, one of Biffle or Carl Edwards is going to come up short and Edwards has better numbers over this stretch, including a couple sub 10th place averages.

Dale Earnhardt Jr

Dale Earnhardt Jr will have to greatly improve his performance on the Indy to Watkins Glen stretch to be a factor in the Championship standings.  He’s averaging a finish of 20th or higher at all 3 tracks, but has been quite successful at the other 5.  His Daytona weekend should give him the confidence needed to make a serious push to stay in the top 12.  I expect him to be the 3rd Hendrick car in the Chase.

Outside Looking In

So that leaves 2 potential spots for those that currently find themselves 13th or lower.  I’d say there’s 3 drivers that have a legitimate shot at finding themselves in those spots.  The first is Mark Martin.  His Chicago through Watkins Glen stats are second to only Tony Stewart, which if he can continue the trend should put him in a good position to play it safe down the stretch.  That would put all 4 Hendrick cars in the Chase…much to the chagrin of a large number of fans.

Kasey Kahne has been money of late (pretty much since it was announced he’d be going to Hendrick Motorsports), and I think we’ll see him make a serious run at the 12th spot, despite being 154 points back currently.  His stats don’t really back it up, as pretty much everyone ahead of him has better numbers.  I’m picking Kasey for strong finishes at both Chicago (3rd in ’09) and Indianapolis (7th in 08 and 09) to get him right back in the thick of things.

If Kahne can’t make up the ground, I think the spot goes to either Burton or Bowyer (unless something ‘clicks’ at Roush as mentioned earlier).  I don’t think Newman, Reutimann or Logano are Chase-worthy this season.  I think Joey is still a season away from being included.  With his continued improvement he should be a factor in 2011.

So that leaves my Chase drivers looking like this: Harvick, Gordon, Johnson, Busch x2, Hamlin, Kenseth, Stewart, Earnhardt, Edwards, Martin, Kahne.  Ten of the twelve currently inside the cutoff will remain there.

I’ll be back after a few races to re-visit the issue, and take a look at how things are shaping up with my expectations.  Feel free to leave your thoughts, whether you agree or disagree in the comments.  Let me know who you think the 12 Chasers will be.

Filed under: Pit Picks by Site Admin - Friday, July 9th, 2010
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We get several emails over the course of the pre-season asking if we can handle all sorts of different Nascar pools.  Here’s a general outline of what we currently offer:

1. Salary Cap

Each team is given $1000 to pick exactly 8 drivers for the season.  You can select any 8 drivers as long as you keep your total salary for your team at or under $1000.  Trades are an option.  Picking teams online is also an option.  Number of drivers and salaries are not customizable.

2. Pick’em

There are 5 groups of drivers, grouped by previous performance.  Select one driver from each group for each race.  If you select a driver for the 6th race, he will be added to all of the following races as well.  Selections can be modified up until the weekly deadline which is generally 12pm (Noon) Eastern on the day of qualifying.  Daytona 500 and scheduled qualifying sessions beginning before this time, will be an exception.  Number of drivers and the groups are not customizable.  Picking online is an option.

3. Pick’em – All

Similar to the  Pick’em Style, but there are no groups.  Select the pre-determined number of drivers for each race out of all available drivers, prior to the weekly deadline.  Number of drivers is customizable.  Picking online is an option.

4. Pick One

Also similar to the Pick’em Style, but you only select one driver for each race, prior to the deadline.  Several leagues using this option also have limits on when and how many times a driver can be selected.  The site doesn’t have these limits set, but commissioners can modify ‘illegal’ picks (according to their rules) if need be.  Picking online is an option.

5. Box

There are 8 groups set up prior to the season.  Pick one car or driver from each of the groups.  Groups are not customizable.  Picks can be made online.  Trades are also an option.

6. Custom

There are basically two sides to ‘Custom’ leagues.  One is you use a set up similar to one of the non-pick’em styles above, but would prefer to customize your own groups or salaries.  All of the cars/drivers are listed, and the commissioner handles the submission of all of the teams.  The number of cars/drivers per team is customizable.  Trades are still allowed, but must be processed by the commissioner.  Picking teams online isn’t an option, as all teams have to be submitted by the commissioner.

The other ‘custom’ option is you let us know how your pool works, and we can work on setting something up for you.  We don’t gaurantee we can set up any type of pool, but if it’s different than anything else we have, we’ll consider it.  We set up a number of custom pool types last year, and have a couple more in the works for this year.  Maybe we’ll add descriptions of some of them, and make them available for selection.

You can also check out our various scoring options.

Filed under: Nascar Pool Help, Site by Site Admin - Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
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We have several scoring methods set up as default options, and we also have a number of custom methods. Here’s an outline all of the different options that are currently available.  New methods will be added once they’ve been used for a full season.

1. Standard Points

Uses the Nascar Championship points scoring system.  Can choose whether or not to count penalties.  Highest score wins.

2. Standard Points – Drop Lowest

Uses the Standard Points method, and the lowest score for that race is dropped.  Can choose whether or not to count penalties.  If counting penalties, the lowest score after the penalty is applied is dropped.  Highest score wins.

3. Standard Points – Modified

Uses the Standard Points method for all cars/drivers making the field, and awards 29 points to all cars/drivers that do not.  Highest score wins.

4. Finish

Your points for the race include the finishing position of the car/driver.  If your car/driver finishes 1st, you get one point, and if they finish 30th, 30 points, etc.  If your car/driver doesn’t make the field for whatever reason, they get 75 points.  There are 2 bonuses awarded, one for the pole if qualifying is contested (-10 pts) and one for the most laps led in the race (-5 pts).  Lowest score wins.

5. Top 10

Points are only awarded to the top 10 finishers of the race.  If your car/driver finishes 1st, you get 10 points, 2nd, 9 pts and so on down to 10th place which receives 1 point.  All others are awarded no points.  Highest score wins.

6. Redline (Custom)

The Redline scoring method is a variation on the Finish method.  Points are still awarded by the finish position, but a laps led bonus is -1 point, with winning the pole (whether quals are contested or not) also being worth -1 point.  The race winning car/driver is also awarded a -2 point bonus.  All cars/drivers not participating in the race for whatever reason receive 44 points.  There is a Chase reset in this method and should really only be used for the Redline pool since the reset it limited to a specific number of teams.  Lowest score wins. 

7. Capper (Custom)

The Capper scoring method is a variation on the Top 10 method.  Instead of the top 10 receiving points, it is now the top 15, from 15 points for first, down to 1 point for 15th.  Winning the pole is also a 5 point bonus.  Highest score wins.

8. Riverton (Custom)

The Riverton scoring method is similar to the Top 10 method, except points are awarded to all cars/drivers in a race.  The first place car/driver gets 45 points, 2nd place, 44 points and so on, down to 3 points for 43rd.  There is a 5 point bonus for leading the most laps, as well as a 5 point bonus for winning a pole (if qualifying is contested – except the Daytona 500).  Highest score wins.

If you have a scoring method you want to use for your league, send us a message, and we’ll try to incorporate it.  We started with only the 3 basic methods (Standard, Finish & Top 10) and have worked with other leagues to make their method work as well.

Filed under: Nascar Pool Help, Site by Site Admin - Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
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Once your league is set up, you’ll need to get all of teams entered.  There are basically two ways to go about this.  Enter them yourself as the commish, or if your pool allows online selections, have people register for the site and add their teams themselves.

Picking Your Team

1. Register and/or Login to the site.
2. If you haven’t already (and aren’t the commish), use the ID and password created by the commish to join the league.
3. Once you’re on the league home page, you can select ‘Pick Team’ from the league menu.
4. If it’s any of the Pick’em style leagues, you just have to submit your team name, and your picks will be defaulted to the first driver in each group alphabetically.  If it’s not a Pick’em style league, submit your team name and select your cars or drivers and click ‘Add Team’.

You should now show up in the team list.  Your team name and overall stats should also show up under your league on your home page whenever you log in.  To make your selections for any of the Pick’em style leagues, you can get to the picks page by selecting your team from the team list, or by clicking the ‘P’ button on the races list.

Adding a Team – Commish

As the Commish of a league, you have the ability to submit your participants picks, as well as modify them in case of error. 

1. From anywhere inside of your league, select ‘Add Team’.  This option will only show up for league commissioners. 
2. Enter the team name, and select the cars or drivers for that team.  You can also enter an email address to notify that person that their team has been submitted.  The email will contain the league ID and password for them to register and join the league.
3. Click the ‘Add Team’ button.

So there’s the basics in adding teams to your fantasy Nascar leagues.  Next up will be some basic steps for managing your league.

Filed under: Nascar Pool Help, Site by Site Admin - Thursday, January 21st, 2010
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To help out all of the new commissioners on Nascar Pools Online this coming season, we’ve put together some quick step by step instructions on setting up a fantasy Nascar pool on the site.

Creating Your League

1. Register and/or Login to the site.
2. Go to the Create League page and give your league a name, a login ID and a password. The ID and password will be used by your poolies to join the league.
3. Select your pool type, and the duration of your season and click the Create League button.

You should now be on the league settings page. You can select the rest of your league options from here. Some options are pre-determined by the pool type you selected on the first page.  The league settings will generally only be able to be modified BEFORE you start submitting/accepting teams.

Selecting League Settings

1. Choose whether you want to score by the car or the driver.  If you choose by car, you’ll get the points for that car, regardless of who is behind the wheel.
2. Select the number of cars or drivers on each team.  All of the default pool types available will have this pre-selected and wont be able to be changed.  If you require more or less drivers/cars per team than in the options, let us know and we can modify it manually for you.
3. Choose your scoring method.  We have a number of options available, including several custom options that other pools use.  If you have a scoring method for your pool that you would like added select ‘Custom’ and contact us to follow up.  If your pool requires a Chase reset, you will need to do this, as no non-custom scoring methods have a reset.
4. If your pool uses one of the ‘Standard’ scoring methods, you can choose to count penalties against your standings.  This will be ignored for all other league types.
5. Select whether or not your league will allow trades, and if there is a cap on trades, put in how many you want it capped at.
6. If you are using one of the default pool types (Salary, Box, Pick’em and Pick One) you can allow teams to be selected online.  You don’t have to, but you do have that option.
7. If you have allowed trades, and are using one of the default pool types you can allow teams to make their trades online.  If you have specific rules about who you can trade and when you can make trades, you’ll want to leave this blank and have the commissioner be responsible for all trades.
8. If you would like your league publicly viewable, you can select this option, which will make available a page where people can view the overall standings without logging into the site.  They wont be able to view team information or race by race results or standings.  The URL for this page will be included in your welcome email upon league creation.

Your league login ID and password are included at the bottom of this page in case you ever forget what they were.  Once you have your league ready for teams, send out an email with this league ID and password.  Remind people that they have to register their own accounts on the site, and then use the info you give them to join the league.  They will only have to do so one time.

Hopefully that helps you get started on getting your league up and running on the site.  We will add a follow-up post in the near future with how to add your teams, and work your way around managing your league now that it’s set up.

Filed under: Nascar Pool Help, Site by Site Admin - Sunday, January 17th, 2010
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We’ve started putting together the default driver groups and salaries for the upcoming season.  The following are what we are leaning towards for the coming season.  There may be some additions and some small changes prior to Sunday when we add the salaries to the site, and make leagues publically available. 

Driver Salaries

Driver	Salary	Driver	Salary
J. Johnson	$200	J. McMurray	$105
M. Martin	$190	M. Truex Jr	$100
J. Gordon	$190	D. Earnhardt Jr	$100
Ku. Busch	$180	A. Allmendinger	$95
D. Hamlin	$180	C. Mears	$85
T. Stewart	$175	E. Sadler	$85
G. Biffle	$170	D. Ragan	$80
J. Montoya	$170	S. Hornish Jr	$70
R. Newman	$165	B. Keselowski	$65
K. Kahne	$160	B. Labonte	$60
C. Edwards	$160	R. Gordon	$60
B. Vickers	$155	S. Speed	$55
Ky. Busch	$150	T. Kvapil	$55
M. Kenseth	$145	P. Menard	$50
C. Bowyer	$140	R. Smith	$50
D. Reutimann	$140	A. Almirola	$50
J. Burton	$135	M. Bliss	$50
M. Ambrose	$130	T. Cook	$40
K. Harvick	$120	K. Conway	$40
J. Logano	$115	B. Elliott	$30

If there is someone running at least a part time schedule that you think should be added, send us a message.

We’ve also posted our potential 2010 Nascar Pool Driver Groups.

Filed under: Site by Site Admin - Monday, January 11th, 2010
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